BARCELONA, Spain – Lewis Hamilton continued his strong qualifying form by earning the pole for the Spanish Grand Prix Saturday at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Hamilton swept all three rounds of qualifying, eventually earning the pole with his first fast lap during Q3 at 1:15.584. His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas kept Hamilton honest, falling .059 seconds short of the time set by Hamilton.

“This is a great result for the team and I’m grateful for everyone continuing to push,” Hamilton said. “It was very hot and quite gusty out there which made for a tricky session. We changed a few things overnight, made a good step forward and I was pretty happy with my first laps in each qualifying session. The first Q3 lap was really solid but there was still a bit of room for improvement. But my second lap wasn’t particularly great and I just couldn’t go quicker. In the end, it was very close with Valtteri out there, he’s keeping me on my toes and every millisecond counts. Tomorrow is going to be challenging, as the race scenario is completely different. Over a single lap, we seem to have the edge, but Red Bull’s race pace looks strong and the run down to turn one is very long, so I’m expecting a tough battle.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, fresh off a victory in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, qualified third. Racing Point continued to show speed as Sergio Perez, returning from a COVID-19 diagnosis, qualified fourth ahead of teammate Lance Stroll in fifth.

Alexander Albon qualified sixth in the second Red Bull, with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. qualifying seventh ahead of his teammate Lando Norris in eighth. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and AlphaTauri took 10th Pierre Gasly.

Sebastian Vettel failed to advance out of Q2 in the second Ferrari, qualifying 11th.